BETHEL+SCHOOL+DIST.+NO.+403+v.+FRASER

BETHEL SCHOOL DISTRICT NO. 403 ET AL. v. FRASER, A MINOR, ET AL. CERTIORARI TO THE UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE NINTH CIRCUIT

Argued March 3, 1986 Decided July 7, 1986

** Summary/Background: **

Respondent was suspended from school after giving a speech for a candidate in a student election in which he referred to his candidate in terms of an elaborate, graphic, and explicit sexual metaphor to a room of 600 students, many of whom were 14 years old. The respondent was also taken off the list of graduation speakers. The student and father took the matter to the district court saying the school violated the respondent’s First Amendment right. The court agreed with the respondent and concluded that the school’s disruptive-conduct rule was unconstitutionally vague and that the removal of the student from the graduation speakers list violated the Due Process Clause.

** Decision: **

The Court reversed the acts of the District Court siding with the school. Children should be considered different from adults, especially when it comes to the classroom. First Amendment Rights, therefore, are different for adults and children. First Amendment jurisprudence recognizes an interest in protecting minors from exposure to vulgar and offensive spoken language limitations on the otherwise absolute interest of the speaker in reaching an unlimited audience where the speech is sexually explicit and the audience may include children. The First Amendment also does not give full freedom of speech, there are limits, and even in the case of Congress, there are rules prohibiting obscene and offensive language.

** Impact on Education: **

“ The First Amendment does not prevent the school officials from determining that to permit a vulgar and lewd speech such as respondent's would undermine the school's basic educational mission,” this line in the case gives schools considerable power in what to prohibit and allow. Within the case, other modes of ‘indecent exposure’ were included; such as books being removed from libraries. The Court stated that school boards have the right to remove books that are vulgar, which can also encompass radio shows (mentioned in the case), movies, and videos. This could have an astounding impact, especially since banning books has been going on for such a long time and is constantly being debated. Who gets to determine what books are vulgar or offensive?

** Quiz Question: **

T/F: Students should be granted the same rights as adults.

// Independently completed by Kelsey Cirmotich //